‘Disheartening’ sweep at home

There wasn’t a lot of talking in quiet the Reds clubhouse after a 10-9 defeat to the Mets Thursday afternoon. But veteran Miguel Cairo wanted to make sure he was heard by all as he spoke with reporters. Cairo didn’t yell but he spoke clearly and made his points.

“We’ve got to start playing the way we know how to play. That’s the bottom line. We stink right now as a team,” Cairo said. “We don’t do the little things to win games. It’s not like everything is going wrong. You’ve got to make it happen. And you’ve got to go out there and make it happen. You’re not going on the field and ‘oh, everything is going to go wrong.’ That’s the not the mentality we got to have. The attitude has to be tomorrow is another day and we’re going to expect to win. Right now, I don’t think we have that attitude.”

Welcome to the lowest point of the Reds season. They are 50-55, five games under .500 (a new season high)

It was the Mets first-ever four-game sweep in the city of Cincinnati — whether it be Crosley Field, Riverfront Stadium or Great American Ball Park. New York scored 30 runs in the series.

And this was a team that had traded one of its best player before Wednesday’s game.

The Reds hadn’t been swept four games at home by anybody since the Astros Aug. 7-10, 2008 by the Astros.

*Logan Ondrusek’s ninth inning hurt badly as a single and two walks loaded the bases. His wild pitch to Willie Harris made it a 10-8 game and proved to be the difference in the game after Joey Votto homered in the bottom on the ninth.

*Speaking of Votto, he is 6-for-13 in three games since Monday’s break with a homer in each one.

*Miguel Cairo hit the second PH homer of his career, a three-run shot in the seventh. His last PH homer was 2001. It played a big role in a nice comeback attempt as the Reds scored four in the fourth and one in the seventh.

*Homer Bailey: 4+ ip, 12 H, 9 ER (career high), 2 BB, 2 K.

*The Reds eight doubles in the game were a season high and their most since…8/26/01 at Montreal.

*The last time the Reds were five games under .500 was the end of the 2009 season when they were six back.

Quotes:

“We’ve got to change the attitude. I don’t like to lose. No one likes to lose. We’ve got to go out there and expect to win. Right now, we’re not playing like it. We’ve got to change the attitude. Tomorrow, we’ve got San Francisco and they’re going to come over here and try to kick our butt. And we’ve got to react. We’ve got to do something about it. We’ve got to take our tail out of our butt. That’s the way we’ve got to do it. Everyone has to put more effort than what we’ve been doing.” — Miguel Cairo

“They were hot this series. They weren’t missing anything. You notice the averages on the board; they came in one thing and left 10, 12 points higher. That’s hard to do this time of year.” — Dusty Baker

“There was the bases loaded double, there were a couple walks in there and there were some more hits, so I don’t think we can sit back and look at a bunt single and say that was the difference. It was more of a matter of a pitcher not making pitches; that was me. Bottom line: we just didn’t get the job done. Offense came up with plenty of runs; we definitely should have won that game with as many runs as we put up. A starter doesn’t go out there and do his job, that’s what’s going to happen.” — Homer Bailey

Two minor league comments: Grandal’s hitting 280 with a 348 obs in Double AA. Do the reds have a decision to make about catchers for next year? I saw Daniel Corcino pitch at Dayton back in May and he threw in the mid 90’s with an 82 mph offspeed pitch, As of today, he’s 9-4 with a .343 era, but hasn’t moved up – does he have big league potential?

Last year this same team was winning close games way too often, and often in the last at bat. This year they are regressing to the mean. It’s simply the law of averages.
That and a leadoff hitter who is hurting WAY more than helping. Starting the game with one out is a severe disadvantage.

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